FCW's 2006 Federal List

Each year, we use Federal Computer Week’s Federal List issue to look at the government information technology market and provide information to help readers do their jobs more effectively.

This year, we offer a government IT self-help guide. In each of the magazine’s sections, we list groups that are worth belonging to and books or Web sites that are worth reading.

In the self-help guide:

• The Management section focuses on certifications worth holding.
• The Technology section lists the technologies worth learning about.
• The Business section looks at the procurement innovations worth trying.
• The Policy section offers ethics policies worth understanding.

The package also includes our annual review of the federal IT market and a feature on the small-business classification controversy.

In addition to lists of the biggest vendors, FCW’s annual Federal List issue has typically included 10 hot companies to watch. We slightly changed that list. This year, we focused on organizations worth watching.

The list includes companies and organizations that are interesting and influential because of the particular niche they occupy or because of their broad scope. Other groups on the list have an interesting angle on the market, attract key people or represent a changing government IT marketplace.

Some of the companies we have selected are also advertisers, but they were chosen based on the previously mentioned criteria.

The list does not strive to be comprehensive. One of the federal market’s strengths is the number of companies in it. We expect people will think other companies or organizations should have made our list, and we welcome your thoughts.